The Mill. A Brief History.

Out of curiosity, I went to the archives in La Roche-sur-Yon, the administrative capital of the Vendée (Department 85), to find out how old the mill actually is.

I found old court filings citing Le Moulin de la Roche in legal cases dating back to 1478. So it’s highly likely that the mill is even older than that.

There actually used to be two watermills on the property but in 1860, one of them was demolished. We don’t know why. We do know that there used to be a ton of watermills and windmills in this area. Most of them, like our mill, produced flour and bread.

Mill on the Rock was a sheep farm too.

The mill’s previous owner, Monsieur Renou, was passionate about Le Moulin de la Roche and its history. He used to give tours on Heritage Day. Lots of visitors would come and wander around, looking at all the artifacts that are Mr. Renou’s collection of antique milling equipment. Some of his collection is still here, making the wheel house feel like a museum.

The Wheel House is where flour was milled to make bread. The entire process was housed in this building, including the wood-fired bread oven with its ancient insignia etched on the chimney.

Opposite the bread oven are big hefty cogwheels or gearwheels, which are powered by the water wheel. The gearwheels’ purpose is to turn the top millstone. It’s connected to the gearwheel via a rotating shaft. The bottom millstone doesn’t turn, only the top one. They grind the wheat berry into flour.

Right now the rotating shaft isn’t attached to anything. The original millstones are gone. The gearwheels turn because they’re still connected to the water wheel. But they don’t do anything. They just turn and turn and turn. A couple of times a year I apply thick gooey engineer grease to lubricate the shafts.

The millstone in the picture - it’s tapered in shape - is the type used by farm animals to grind flour out in a courtyard or open space. The tapered stone is harnessed to an animal, a donkey for example. As it walks round and around it turns the stone to grind the wheat berry.

I'm so curious and fascinated by this place, I flit around a lot, learning about this and that, making notes about things of interest that I’ll write about later. I've learned so much since moving here in 2016. I want to dive deeper into subjects like quarries and river sources, and so many other things!

I'll get there...